Clara Pagone (Artistic Associate and Teaching Artist Lead) A stage and screen storyteller, Clara hails from Italy via Australia. Clara first arrived to NYC for SITI Company’s Inaugural Conservatory, later becoming a Phoenix Theatre Artistic Associate and Teaching Artist. Clara, who has advanced double degrees in Biomedical Sciences & Laws from Monash University in Australia, began her teaching artist career in the suburbs of Melbourne staging full-scale productions with students aged five to fifteen with Acting Antics: encouraging young voices to find the rigor and joy of stage craft. Impressed by Clara’s ability to communicate with young artists, Hands On Training invited Clara to join their teaching team, using acting techniques and games to strengthen early and late teenagers to open up to a crowd, present to large forums and refine their one-on-one people skills. In 2011, Clara toured withSpectacular Spettacolo’s one-woman bilingual (Italian/English) musical “TimeWrap” and “Dammi il Cinque”. These one-hour musical productions toured around Australia promoting education in the arts, culture and languages. The shows had interactive dance numbers with students further promoting health living choices and taught elements of Commedia Dell’Arte at the end of each interactive musical performance often to a student audience of 700 from ages 5 to 13. With these credits to her name, Clara was invited as a guest adjudicator to the prestigious Mildura Italian Poetry and Performing Arts Eisteddfod Competition. Upon awarding students from elementary levels to senior school for their performance, singing and recitation work, Clara taught a masterclass in “The Magic of Actor Body in Space”, looking at sophisticated elements of stage craft for students in their teens.